After reporting a rebound in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims pulled back by much more than expected in the week ended June 18th.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 259,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 277,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 270,000.
With the bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims hit their lowest level since dropping to 257,000 in the week ended April 23rd.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also edged down to 267,000, a decrease of 2,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 269,250.
The modest decline pulled the four-week moving average down to its lowest level since hitting 258,000 in the week ended April 30th.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also fell by 20,000 to 2.142 million in the week ended June 11th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims also dipped to 2,147,000, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 2,151,500.
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